Angel Heart

Harry Angel, a worn-out detective from Brooklyn, accepts a peculiar assignment: find a singer who has vanished. His search drifts him through Harlem's desperate avenues, into the smoke-filled nightclubs of New Orleans, and along the damp back roads of Louisiana's bayous. The case pulls him into a seedy underworld steeped in mysticism and voodoo, where corrupt figures and old debts collide with his own bleak past. As clues accumulate, Angel realizes this pursuit is less about a missing star and more about a perilous game of power and identity. The atmosphere thickens with dread as danger closes in. Along the way he wrestles with his moral lines and the force behind the disappearance.

A production by Alan Parker, Angel Heart adapts William Hjortsberg's novel and landed theaters in 1987. With a budget around 17 million, the film pairs a moody noir aesthetic with a chilling supernatural edge. That approach helped it stand out.

Its blend of hard-boiled noir and supernatural dread left a lasting mark on late 80s cinema. With memorable performances from Mickey Rourke and Robert De Niro and a mood that lingers beyond the screen, Angel Heart remains a touchstone for fans of audacious mood and striking imagery, inspiring later thrillers.

Critics praised Parker's direction and the film's fearless blend of genres, viewing it as a meditation on desperation, identity, and desire. The mood benefits from a haunting score and performances that fuse grit with vulnerability, while the noir framework probes moral ambiguity and the costs of chasing power.

Awards: The film did not receive major nominations, but it earned respect for its craft and has endured as a notable example of late 80s transgressive cinema, influencing discussions of mood and tone among fans and cinephiles, and remains a case study for how horror and noir can intersect.